I feel like I want to try to pick something, but it's a weird blessing that I have such difficulty choosing *one*. A lot of it all blurs together in this weird conglomeration of some sort of alternate reality, as if these things were years in the past when they truly were only months ago. (Well, many of them are recent; the first really was years ago. It's just a cute funny one, though.)
The first time I met Patrick Wilson, I made a total ass of myself; near three years later, my friends still laugh at me for it. I was with my best friend from high school and my dad, who I was giving my camera to. As I was showing him how to work it, Patrick came outside, and my friend started jabbing my shoulder to get my attention. I whipped around to find Patrick standing right next to me, gorgeous grin on his face. I looked up, and just said "..... wow," as I stood there in absolute awe.
I've had a lot of wonderful meetings with fantastic people, but rather than list little quips, assuming people are actually going to bother to read this, I guess I'll try to post one particular favorite experience.
Everybody knows I'm a huge huge huge Adam Pascal fan. I've met the guy a bunch of times, but up until very recently, I was scared out of my pants of him. In the course of four years, I probably spoke about eight words to him, even though he had always been extremely kind to me. Last March, I was formally introduced to him on a giant stroke of luck, and things began to click in terms of familiarty and whatnot.
The Rent movie press was slowing down around the time of the 24 Hour Plays on Broadway benefit last October, so I had seen Adam at lot of appearances in the months prior. We ran into each other inside the box office while I was waiting on line for rush tickets, but what was most striking about the whole thing was that he saw me, and took the initiatve to come over and say hi. I was just sort of going to smile at him and pretend to make a phone call, or something, out of being too shy to bother. But he came over and asked how I was, what I was doing, etc, and we had a real, human conversation; that meant a lot to me, on a personal level, since I was able to get past being incapacitated by my shyness.
After the show, I was with some friends in the lobby of the theatre, and I saw Adam on his way out. I gently got his attention, started to congratulate him on his performance, and told him how fantastic he was -- I planned to just say a quick hello and congrats, since he was talking to someone, but before I had any idea what was going on, Adam slid his hand into mine, and held onto it, as if to say "hold on, don't go anywhere," as he finished his conversation. He turned to my friends and I, and to my greatly ridiculous surprise, used some term of endearment ("hey sweetie," or the like), pulled me over to him, and kissed my cheek, thanking me for coming, over and over again. I was so boggled because he had always been very kind to me, but never outwardly affectionate or overly attentive, or anything. We talked for a while, took some pictures, and my friends got things signed. The details of what was said, though some people like to read them, and I could probably tell them, aren't even really important; for me, it was just the fact that it was real, and chill, and comfortable -- not "can you sign this okay thanks bye!" or anything like that. Adam sort of got dragged away to sign other things, but before he left, he came back over to say goodnight, which was very sweet.
Truth be told, I was more than a little bit giddy, and basically flung myself happily into a friend's arms about 20 minutes later; he knew exactly what had induced my little high, it seemed.
Adam moved to California about a month ago, and between then and the last time I saw him face-to-face, things sort of continued to be a lot more chill than I was used to; and more than it was like "OH MY GOD ADAM PASCAL KISSED ME AAH!!" it was a relief to sort of get over that little personal hurdle, if you will. In the time that passed between the 24 Hour Plays and the last concert set I saw him play, we've cracked jokes with each other, and actually spoken at length, as well as other little things. In all seriousness, while I know this is no token "relationship" by any means, and that it means very little in the grand scheme of the world, getting to a non-awkward point of real human conversation with someone whose work you love so much is a cool feeling, to say the least.
And hey, I've got piles of stories to shatter the bad reputation he does not deserve.
A work of art is an invitation to love.
Updated On: 5/31/06 at 01:03 AM